Italy’s right-wing government alliance turned on each other in the Senate Budget Committee over the tax decree that will go to the floor on Thursday for a vote of confidence. The conflict is only the tip of the iceberg, signaling deeper tensions that are likely to escalate.

According to Lega Senator Claudio Borghi, the government had given the okay for a cut in the public TV tax “of €20 for 20 million subscribers, including millions of poor families.” But at the time of the vote, Forza Italia voted with the opposition and the amendment to cut the tax was defeated by two votes.

Forza Italia have long opposed Salvini’s push, who wrote in his election manifesto that he wanted to cut the TV tax, and proposed compensating for the shortfall with general taxation or by raising the ceiling on advertising sales. This is something the Berlusconi family is adamantly opposed to, although on Wednesday Forza Italia leader Antonio Tajani, while saying he was opposed to the Lega proposal, ruefully dismissed any notion that the family of the party founder had influence on the party's programmatic lines.

From the Prime Minister’s office came a statement that “the stumble of the majority on the issue of cutting the public TV tax benefits no one,” while repeating........

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